The Weirdest Pictures Of 2014

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2. North American Wife Carrying Championship at River ski resort in Newly, Maine on October 11.

3. Lunch while they are suspended in the air above Parc du Cinquantenaire in Brussels on June 2

4. A Ferrari fan walks through the paddock ahead of the Canadian Formula One Grand Prix at Circuit

5. The world's shortest man Chandra Bahadur Dangi at 1 feet 10 inches (.57 meter) greets the tallest living man Sultan Kosen at 8 feet 3 inches (2.51 meter) to mark the Guinness World Records Day in London on November 13.

6. Robots perform a pole dance at the booth of the Tobit Software company on the eve of the start of the 2014 CeBIT technology trade fair on March 9 in

7. A radio-controlled flying witch makes a test flight past a moon setting into clouds along the Pacific

8. Canadian WTA tennis player Eugenie Bouchard (R) and Bulgarian ATP player Grigor Dimitrov play during an exhibition match on a floating court at Santa Lucia Bay in Acapulco, Guerrero state, Mexico on February 24.

9. Annabelle Proelss and Ruben Blommaert of Germany perform during the Rostelecom Cup ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating in Moscow on November 14.

10. A South Korean diver clad in a soccer uniform swims with sardines for South Korean team's success in the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil at the

24. A newly married couple, members of the amateur rope-jumping group "Exit Point", jumps from a 44 meter high water pipe bridge in the Siberian Taiga

25. A participant runs with his dog as they take part in The Sumo Run in Battersea Park, London on July 27.

26. A man walks past the cutout of a woman in Iranian dress in front of the Karim Khani Palace, also a former prison on May 29, in Shiraz, Iran.

27. A Darth Vader character from the film Star Wars throws out the ceremonial first pitch before the Seattle Mariners take on the Texas Rangers at Globe

28. A participant of the Splashdiving World Championship wears a unicorn mask as he jumps into the Freizeitbad Silvana public swimming pool in

29. A BSF (Border Security Force) soldier performs acrobatics on camel back during the 49th Raising day of Indian defense

30. A goat walks through a ticket barrier with commuters at Vauxhall Underground Station in

31. German pianist Stefan Aaron hovers above the Munich airport Franz-Josef-Strauss, southern Germany on July 23. Aaron is seated in front of his piano on an aluminum structure that is attached to a helicopter. All photos belong to the original authors

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

The simpsons handbook

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1. BULGY EYEBALLS AND FREAKISH OVERBITES: AN INTRODUCTION ’ve been a drawer of curves and ovals and squiggly lines for about as long as I can remember. I can even pinpoint the moment when my fate as a lifelong compulsive doodler was sealed: the first day of the first grade. That's when I began to draw, and draw and draw and draw, on whatever surface and with whatever tool I had handy. Why? Because I found school so unbelievably boring that I had to do something—anything—to keep myself from going out of my mind. Eventually, those crude grade-school scribbles grew more polished and refined, resulting in that crude grown-up cartoon powerhouse we all love and worship, "The Simpsons. " And today, ”The Simpsons” remains part of a special but disappearing art form: two—dimensional hand-drawn animation, with heavy emphasis on large heads, beard lines, and comical flab. Back in I993, we put together Cartooning with the Simpsons, the inspiration for this monumental instructional art tome. But as great as the original work was, it looks like a bootleg coloring book for little babies compared to this big ol’ brick. Check out the gatefolds and tracing paper overlays, the oodles and oodles of Simpsons characters, including Milhouse, and the highly professional tips and tricks from the ani- mators who have toiled on the show till they have weird little skin grooves where they hold their pencils. I assure you that if you practice hard and long enough, you too can develop your own special little skin grooves. I've got lots of cartooning advice, if you can stop drawing for a second and pay attention: Keep things simple. (You can convey space, motion, and feeling with surprisingly few lines. ) Save your stuff. (Don't let your mom or stepmom throw it out. ) Always finish what you're working on. (There's nothing like completing a full story. ) Go ahead and copy other styles. (But don't just stick to one. ) Check out the original artwork of cartoonists and artists you dig. (Pros do make mistakes, but you have to see the originals to learn how they fixed them. ) And finally (here's the tough one): Be originall (Keep practicing, develop your own style, and try to surprise yourself. ) This book is full of rules about how to draw the Simpsons characters, and those rules have made it possible for thousands of artists (pencillers, cleaner-uppers, eraser-monkeys, inkers, in-between-the-liners, crayonists, colorizers, mouse-clickers, and magical elves) to draw the Simpsons pretty much the same way. This process has taken us years to get right. But when I started drawing Bart, Lisa, Homer, Marge, (Ind Maggie for the first time, there was no ”right" way to draw them. I had tried, and failed, to draw like the slick professional artists l'd admired. So I gave up trying to be a drawing master and went back to doodling freakish humanoids with no chins. For me, that was when the fun began. Your pal, MM‘ Geese: -06

2. Welcome to the world of cartoaning. ..”Simpsons”-style! Before you roll up your sleeves and start getting your hands dirty, you'll need a few supplies. Here are some essential items, plus some fancy extras if you feel like pampering yourself. Pencils @— A standard #2 will work fine, but art pencils come in many varieties, from very soft lead (for a dark line) to very hard lead (for a light line). Pick the one that suits you best. Also, you'll notice that much of the rough sketching in this book is done with a light color pencil. Then the final line is put in with a darker lead pencil. You may want to try some of the many color pencils available and find a brand that you like. For a sharp drawing, you'll need a sharp pencil. For that you'll need a Pencil Sharpener@. You can splurge and get a cool, noisy electric model, or economize with one of the hand-crank variety. You might also want to pick up a small portable hand-held sharpener for when you're drawing on the go. Erasers@—— It's good to have a plastic eraser such as a Staedtler Mars for eradicating unwanted darker lines, and a kneaded eraser for getting rid of softer lines and removing dirt and smudges from your paper. Speaking of Papera , you'll need some of that, too. It'll keep you from drawing all over your walls. Any paper will do for practice, even a paper bag. But you may want a good drawing paper, layout bond or bristol board, for your more finished drawings. Pens 9- In animation, the tight pencil drawings are scanned directly, but for printing purposes, a finished ink line is necessary. "Simpsons" comic books, calendars, merchandise art, etc. , all require inking over the finished pencil drawings. Most "Simpsons" artists use a Rapidograph technical pen or a Micron archival ink pen to achieve those consistent "Simpsons"-style lines. White Opaquing Painte such as Pro White is good for covering up inking mistakes, and you can easily ink back over it after it dries. You'll rarely see a perfectly straight line in a "Simpsons" drawing, but a T-square a, Plastic Trianglee, and Rulero will occasionally come in handy for laying out lines of perspective, floor and ceiling lines, etc. , in background drawings and large props. Final lines are done without these items to give the backgrounds and props an organic hand-drawn look. Drawing Board® — A good sturdy surface is essential to a good sturdy drawing. A drawing board is ideal, but a desk or kitchen table will do as well. Some artists like to work with their paper on a flat surface, while others prefer to work at an angle. You decide what works best for you. If you can't afford an adiustable drawing board, inexpensive lightweight boards are available that you can hold on your lap or prop against the edge of a table. If you're working at an angle, White Paper Tapem is essential for keeping your drawing on your board and off the floor. Lighting — Your drawing will come out better if you can actually see what you're doing. If you decide to work at a drawing board, it's a good idea to get an adiustable Clamp-an Lamp Otherwise, make sure your space is well lit or that you have access to lots of Sunlight®.

108. We ‘lwo—poiM' peFSP¢¢‘l'N¢ allows us ‘to see ‘l’ne room at an odd angle. we're not in M center of ‘‘ne room as we were in M simpsons’ Tv room. now we’re ol'-IF to tie side andwecansee‘lwosideso«Fnosto-Ftlieelementsintlieroom. ilowever, i‘? we were standing directly -Facing, say, ne Sqvisbee macliine, our perspective would cbainge to one’pOlV‘l' and we would see only ‘tlie vwcwne's back surFace.

111. // Most of us don’t know wbal’ ‘lke ' i of an actual nuclear power plant looks like, birt ‘tkese views of’ Rowers work . station are pre-Hv convincing. we ’ know wkat most oF -tkese dials, knobs, and sHﬁ‘be$ do, but nertiier does tloner.

113. wken it comes to “ﬁne simpsons, " idle bands are tbe car-toonist’s playground. ttere are a couple of pages of props to give tkose bands sometking to do. Like tile backgrounds, -tke props in tbe Simpsons universe are very observational. ‘ﬁiey liave a very and—drawn, organic look, yet, as you can see by tbe Slxadiﬂg on tkese preliminary ske-tciies, tbeir design comes -From observing real obiects. For comparison, a -Few of tbe preliminary sketcbes are $owV wi-tb Mlr Final animation line counterparts. ""v AND CREATIVE FWEADLINE HERE EElE'FRAHE BHINE

114. All the individual aspects at drawing that we've examined are essential to building a scene with characters interacting in a setting. Whether your goal is creating an animated cartoon, a comic book, or an illustration, sooner or later you have to bring all the elements together. So why wait? Let's do it now! The opposite page with overlays illustrates the evolution of a scene from its rough, block-shape layout stage, to a rough pencil sketch, followed by a tight pencil drawing, and ending with the final ink line illustration in full color! Study them well and use them as a guide to build your own cartoon masterpieces!